1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a female terminal, and in particular to a female terminal used in an electrical connector for use in a wiring harness for an automobile, which has a protective sleeve for protectively covering a female receptacle section of a female terminal member of the female terminal.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A known female terminal having a protective sleeve is shown in FIG. 1. In the figure, the reference numeral 1 denotes a female terminal which includes a female terminal member 2 and a protective sleeve 3.
The female terminal member 2 has a female receptacle section 4 at a front side thereof and an electrical wire connecting section 5 at a rear side thereof to which an electrical wire 6 is connected. The female receptacle section 4 has a plurality of flexible contacts 4a which form a female receptacle 4b to which a male terminal (not shown) is to be fitted.
Around the female receptacle section 4, the cylindrical protective sleeve 3 is fitted. The cylindrical sleeve 3 serves to prevent the contacts 4a from being exceedingly deformed outwardly to protect the female receptacle section 4.
Between the female receptacle section 4 and the wire connecting section 5 of the female terminal member 2, there is formed an engagement portion 7 having a collar-like configuration. Thus formed engagement portion 7 is located substantially at the center of the terminal member 2.
In use of the female terminal 1 having the above structure, the female terminal 1 is inserted into one of cavities 8 in a connector housing 9. As shown in FIG. 2, when the female terminal 1 is properly fitted in the cavity 8 of the connector housing 9, stopper arms 10 protrudingly provided inside the cavity 8 come to engage with the engagement portion 7 of the terminal member 2 so as to prevent the terminal 1 will be fallen out from the cavity 8. In this situation, since the engagement portion 7 is formed substantially at the center of the female terminal member 2, the engagement portion 7 is positioned at the middle of the cavity 8. This means that the stopper arms 10 are in engagement with the engagement portion 7 at the position far from a front or rear opening 9a or 9b of the cavity 8 of the connector housing 9.
As a result of the position of the engagements between each arm 10 and the engagement portion 7 of the terminal member 2, when a spacer 11 which ensures the engagement between the stopper arm 10 and the engagement portion 7 by preventing the arm 10 from being loosened is inserted into a space between the arm 10 and the inner surface of the cavity 8 from the front opening 9a of the housing 9, the length of the spacer 11 has to be long in accordance with the distance from the front opening 9a to the position at which the stopper arm 10 is located. Further, when the stopper arms 10 are disengaged from the engagement portion 7 by a releasing tool (not shown) which releases the engagement between each stopper arm 10 and the engagement portion 7 in order to remove the female terminal 1 from the housing 9, the releasing operation has to be done at the middle position in the cavity, thus making the operation very difficult.